Stratics Veteran

Well, UO is a very very tough game to start with, especially compared to WoW. There are no real quests, just seemingly unlimited freedom.
I think he'd really need some guidance. It's always good to have a friend to help you out and show you around.

Just for that reason I'd say LS. LS is not a bad or empty shard by any means .

Stratics Veteran

Honestly, Tell them to play LS.. unless you both want to pick a dif server, and start from scratch. I started Pac for the same reason, my RL friend played there... well tried to play. I quickly surpassed him... >=).

Stratics Veteran

playing uo is all about friendship and spending time with your friends and guildmates. uo is also a game where a little help is a big advantage so for a new player haveing someone to talk to share experience with will make them understand and like uo . my advice is to have them start on the shard you play so you can show them the ropes. don,t do it for them just assist and back them up. I am sure that every shard has its good points and bad so i would say at least for a while it would not matter. there is also enough stuff where each can do different things at times to.

I play five shards, Oceania, Lake Austin, Lake Superior, Great Lakes, and Atlantic.

I wouldn't suggest Oceania as it's one of the dead shards,
Lake Austin, is a geat shard not much pvp, but out of the five I play I'd say has one of the nicest community's, everyone's really friendly and helpful. Lake Superior would be good as you play and he'd have someone to help him out on the go. Great Lakes is my favorite one for pvp, I don't know much about the pvm guilds. Atlantic, I'd say is one thats to costy to learn how, market is really high on that shard.

Stratics Veteran

Start him out on your own shard. Having an experienced player around to answer all of your questions and get you pointed in the right direction will help to get him over the initial learning curve. You'll also be able to show him around to the various places that for a new player can be hard to find. He'll also appreciate the game much more if he's got a good friend he can share the experience with, and you'll get a new appreciation for the game from seeing it through a new player's eyes.

Yea...I would start him out on LS. First of all, hes going to nead someone to walk him through things that other people might not have the wish to do. Also, LS is a nice shard I think for new players, prices are mid range and people are pretty friendly.

Stratics Veteran

Yea...I would start him out on LS. First of all, hes going to nead someone to walk him through things that other people might not have the wish to do. Also, LS is a nice shard I think for new players, prices are mid range and people are pretty friendly.

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Just dont co-own him to anything too soon.. might ravage your place not knowing the value of items =)

Stratics Veteran

Do you have an attachment to LS that would make you not want to move to a new shard? If so, have him start on LS.
If not, start on a new shard with him, from scratch, and play with each other to raise you stats, skills, and collection of items. Once you both have at least one solid character, transfer your stuff over from LS (unless none of it is worth transferring).
Pick a shard that best fits both of you.

Catskills has a wide variety of groups, so if you like doing a bit of everything, you should consider looking into it. It's towards the middle in terms of population.

Stratics Veteran

What shard has the best connection for your friend? I play on LS because of a friend, despite the fact that it isn't the best connection.

What is your friend into? Some shards are better at various things and have various communities.

While there is an advantage to having an older mentor in game, I do know it is possible to make the game too easy for another player. I did this with my brother, and he eventually left the game because there wasn't much to challenge him.

The people on Baja are just cooler than everybody else. I don't know why. Maybe it attracts people who associate with the imagery of Baja........crystal water, beaches, sun....but also a little hint of Tijuana seediness.

He doesnt know anyone and regardless of what people like Rico and Krystal say...most of the people there would rather kill a noobie and dry loot him then anything else.

Not to mention it limits you big time on Siege and he most likely would be stuck in Luna for a long time.

My advice would be to start:
A. On LS and you can hook him up.
B. Both of you start new characters on a different shard and build yourselves from scratch. It can be quite rewarding to go back to the old days of the bone knight room with 2 other buddies and just cross heal train...fight liches...
Just play the game.

Also, avoid fel for the first 3 months...the last thing you need is him finally getting a decent suit only to die and lose it right away.

If you intend on playing Siege....play a production shard for a few months to get your feet wet.

Sure he is. He lied with this statement. Nuff said a new player should start on Siege. Since Siege is a shard that is supposed to be for advanced players, and since new player does not equal advanced player, that would make Nuff a liar in this case.

He was probably just looking for an easy mark to steal from anyway....

Personally, I adore the Lake Austin shard, and wouldn't want to play anywhere else. *big hugs to everyone on her shard*

With that said, though, the reason I love LA so much is because of the people. Friends are 90% of the appeal of an MMO, so it seems to me that your best bet would be to have your buddy start on the same shard you usually play. After they get used to the gameplay, learn how to develop a good template, find all the choice hunting spots, and really understand the game -- with your help -- then they can choose whichever shard they want as their "home". But chances are they'll stick with the one you play, just because they'll always have somebody to adventure with.

Sure he is. He lied with this statement. Nuff said a new player should start on Siege. Since Siege is a shard that is supposed to be for advanced players, and since new player does not equal advanced player, that would make Nuff a liar in this case.

He was probably just looking for an easy mark to steal from anyway....

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Pfft, if someone has never played UO, starting on Siege is no problem, as a matter of fact, it would probably be easier to learn the game on this playstyle. Learning to play UO in trammel, is well...let's leave it at, it's not a very good way to have someone new learn how to play the game with the easy button in the ON position. If this person has a friend playing on a production shard...they can both start new characters on Siege and skill up together...la

I don't think so. I've just started playing UO again after 5 years. Oceania has the best connection for me, so I play there. There have been HEAPS of people to hunt with and help get me started again. Heck, I'd only just logged in for 30 mins and couldn't remember how to play the game and was invited to a champ spawn with a guild I later joined.

So.. perhaps Oceania is not populated at peak US time, but come check us out at peak Australian time!

i would suggest LS, One becuzz its my primary shard and secoundly becuzz Like me there are tons of folks that love to help equip and advise new players, Its like a compitition sometimes to see who can get the best pieces of armour together for new players, checks for 500k to a mil to insure stuff with are common as well.

But now as for SP, Thats where the real fun is. I know that on LS you could literally run around for a week in the wild and not see another person ever. On SP the "few" folks that are there are seemingly everywhere.

I disagree that starting on Siege is bad when you're new to the game. I started on Siege after only a week on Baja and I'm glad I did. Had I not, I might have never made it to Siege. Had I decided I wanted to quit my trammel shard, I might have quit the game completely...not gone to Siege.

Siege can be accurately labeled a vet shard since the majority of people who play it are vets to the game. They started on other shards. But that doesn't mean it's a shard only for vets. Being a vet and "experienced at the game," imo, should play no great role in one's decision to play on Siege. It's not about being a vet and already knowing the game. It's the type of player you are, no matter if you're new or old. It's just your play style...if you enjoy more risk, danger, community, required player interaction, etc...or not

So my advice is to first tell him the difference between normal shards in general and Siege Perilous. If he says he is not interested in a shard like Siege, then you can proceed to tell him the differences between the normal shards.

I started on Oceania since I had RL friends who played there. Now I stay on Oceania because it is almost the emptiest shard and you don't need people anymore to play UO, it has gone from one big MMORPG to a single player game. Is it available for XBOX yet?

Every other idea tossed your way gets chewed up and spit out like a bad meal.

Face it Rico. Your shard is dying. Theres a reason for it.

It isnt because of insurance. Its other things...

The Red police that inhabit everywhere and gank everyone in mass.

The limits of 1 character.

The inability of anyone getting anywhere without the gate spell.
Recall and Sanctum would help this...
(please dont give me the use friends crap)
Siege is so dead there isnt enough people on to gate you around....and someone who "kindly" gate you might just come back through in 30 minutes and kill you.

Siege was a beautitful idea that unfortunetly like all good ideas gets ruined by bad eggs.

Your shard is infested with 90% reds.

You know something is wrong with a shard when 90% of everyone is red.
(excluding NEW)

See how little you actually know about Siege? Reds on Siege are not the same as reds on the production shards. I've known plenty of "good" reds that were red because they happened to defend a guildmate in trouble, or for other reasons. To be honest, on Siege, it's the blues you usually have to worry about. I know you said you've played the shard, you apparently didn't pay attention to the community while you were here, because if you had, you would already know this...la

Stratics Veteran

I think your friend will not remain in UO long (especially coming from WoW) if you (or other friends) are not there to share the adventures from the beginning and offer guidance - UO is NOT intuitive at all in most cases, and after the tool tip loaded, online/context help, up to date nicely organized & searchable website, and fast GM support of WoW, UO will probably be a very non user friendly experience in contrast. Populated or not, your shard, where you are already established is the logical starting point for him. You can always move to another shard and start together, but if he starts on his own somewhere, the likelihood is he'll get confused, and bored, and run screaming back to WoW, and you'll never get him to set foot in UO again.

-Skylark

P.S. I left for Siege not long after my new player status wore off on Atlantic, and I haven't been anywhere else. I followed my friend to Siege, and made more friends there. Having people I enjoyed to play the game with was what I prized most. I have always avoided PvP. So I broke both of the Siege "rules".

Red does not mean you kill newbies, also if he likes player interaction, what could be better than our outlaw world of Siege? Some may kill you but big deal?

You do realise that when someone kills you on Siege you can get rezzed just like everywhere else right? I mean thats part of the game. Its not like they permanently hurt you or anything.

I mean its alot better you think, if you could loose the trammy mentality. Getting PK by a red and then rezzed by another character who adventures with you for an hour then gives you enough gold to buy a house is alot cooler than running around a world with people who won't even venture into fel even with insurence.

Sorry, but your mass clans of reds ruin it for the noobies looking to join.

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Sorry, wrong again. I play solo 99.75% of the time. I think I have been randomly killed by a pk while training skills a total of once in the last 6 months. Sure I get killed more when I go mess around where large groups are gathered...big deal, it's part of the game...la

Every other idea tossed your way gets chewed up and spit out like a bad meal.

Face it Rico. Your shard is dying. Theres a reason for it.

It isnt because of insurance. Its other things...

The Red police that inhabit everywhere and gank everyone in mass.

The limits of 1 character.

The inability of anyone getting anywhere without the gate spell.
Recall and Sanctum would help this...
(please dont give me the use friends crap)
Siege is so dead there isnt enough people on to gate you around....and someone who "kindly" gate you might just come back through in 30 minutes and kill you.

Siege was a beautitful idea that unfortunetly like all good ideas gets ruined by bad eggs.

Your shard is infested with 90% reds.

You know something is wrong with a shard when 90% of everyone is red.
(excluding NEW)

Click to expand...

I will agree that often Siege players themselves stand in the way of improving the shard and that we can't blame the devs entirely for our problems. Even with a ROT change it took a long time for people to start supporting it and we still have people opposed to a change or in favor of the wrong change.

However, no offense, but it's good people oppose the changes you suggest. Those have no place on Siege. One character is how it should be. No recall is how it should be. A healthy population isn't the ultimate goal. An untrammelized, proper Siege with a healthy population is. If all that mattered was population, we could allow more characters, character transfers, recall, etc...But it's not. A change that brings more people to Siege might still hurt Siege. And that's the beauty of a major ROT change...we can bring more people to Siege without violating the spirit of Siege.

Also, the red population isn't anywhere near 90% of Siege. And as Rico said, reds, in my experience anyway, generally seem to be more honorable. It's the blues you have to worry about. In fact I have a theory that there is no such thing as an honorable player with PvP capabilities who is consistently blue.

Stratics VeteranAlumniStratics Legend

FYI I'm a blue, non combatant crafter, happily playing on Siege. I die rarely, I gate by using scrolls, a + magery spell book and a pair of + magery jewels. I have no 'real' points in the skill. I fizzle a lot, but I get there eventually. I've never actually counted, but I think I see pretty equal numbers of reds and blues and a fair few of the reds don't attack me anyway.

On the other hand, I agree that Siege isn't a good starting point to learn the game from brand new and solo. Game knowledge is a lot of help there.

Stratics VeteranStratics LegendCampaign Supporter

No, you just have to lose your young player status. You can do this by reaching the min skill to remove it, waiting the 40 hours of played time or just saying "I renounce my young player status".

-Skylark

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yep, you're right! i have a house-holding account that's about 5 years old but the characters are 'young' since i never use them. sure enough, SP isn't listed in the shard list when i log in on that account.

On the other hand, I agree that Siege isn't a good starting point to learn the game from brand new and solo. Game knowledge is a lot of help there.

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But many players on Siege are very helpful. We even have a whole guild dedicated to helping new players. I see no reason why someone shouldn't start on Siege as a new player. As I said before, it's not about experience...it's about play style.

Stratics VeteranAlumni

My first instinct is of course to suggest LS where I play, but I want to be fair. LS isn't the most pupulated server after all..

So why would you suggest Your shard? Or if you wouldn't, why not?

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Catskills is a great shard, with a ton of people who would bend over backwards to help out people, and I would recommend anyone come here to play. But in your particular case, I'd suggest the shard you're on. It's much easier having a friend when you start out. My advice to you (if you can possibly do this) is start a new char with him. I've found that while playing with developed chars over a length of time, we tend to forget just how daunting a task it is to start out from scratch.

They are also both my shards...but I am not so blind as to not see how Atlantic would be bad for a noobie.

Everyone says the idea of Siege is to not be a trammelized shard...yet my ideas of recall and more then 1 characters were implemented LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG before Siege existed...oh wait...RG himself wanted them implemented.

So spare me the "no trammel" bs...if the man who made the game and the world wanted recall and several characters...then your logic fails.

To me the main part of Siege is:
A. anything goes
B. No insurance

Those are the only 2 things you Siegers should care about.

You add recall and atleast 3 characters per account and you would have more people to steal from..and it wouldnt be trammelized.

Just because recall or multiple characters were around before trammel does not mean they belong on Siege. And since trammel has them and we don't, I think it's fair to call adding them to Siege trammelizing Siege.

Siege is supposed to be the "hard shard" and recall and multiple characters make it easier. They also hurt the community. Imo they don't belong on any shard, Siege or not Siege.

LOL!! Then I guess I missed it on both tries...I started UO on Atlantic, and moved to Siege after a couple of weeks where I remained. I loved Atlantic when I was there, even though it often seemed you couldn't take a step without bumping into someone...and eventually I loved Siege, although the first few weeks I was kind of bored on Siege after the booming population of Atlantic as my only reference, and was bouncing back and forth between the 2 shards. After a short time though, I found people to spend time with regularly, and I just never went back to Atlantic.

Skylark -I as well started on Atlantic (I am still there) and if you havent been back here then you dont know why its not a good place for a noobie.

Everything is inflated in price. Everything has been duped here..hacking/cheating is at the highest on this shard (Atlantic).

Bottom line is: You can say Siege is great all day...people like me have made suggestions...you think recall is trammelization because it happens in trammel...so does everything..lol...and recalling happens in fel too.

Like I said...when I heard about Siege ...at first it sounded awesome.
No insurance...no trammel...attacking anyone anywhere...

Great idea...then I got there and realized that unless I make a character able to gate...I have to rely on everyone around me.

Guess what...some people prefer to be loners and some people play late at night and cant depend on people to get around.

Like I said...you can hate those things all you want...
But until something that makes Siege desirable comes along...enjoy the dead shard...

and Rico...all that should matter to you is..
"you succesfully steal the item"

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